Interactive Exhibits for Oil & Gas Exhibition

by Gagarin

Gold

A permanent exhibition about the exciting story of the Norwegian oil industry was opened on 13 March 2014 at the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology in Oslo. The architects at CoDesign in Stockholm are the exhibition designers and Gagarin was hired by them to design and develop interactive installations for this exhibition. The exhibition covers the Norwegian oil deposit and its ramifications. It investigates the economical, environmental, scientific and societal consequences of Norway’s vast oil reserves. The exhibition ties together 5 themes or perspectives on oil that runs through the exhibition. They are represented by five colour-coded pipes that take the visitor through history from the creation of oil millions of years ago to the future and what that might hold for Norway depending on different scenarios. The pipes run parallel and sometimes connect at crucial tipping points in history but also diverge and expand to tell their own stories. The interactive installations Gagarin produced are as follows: Oil oven This installations challenges the guests to answer various of questions relating to processing of oil i.e.”How many dinosaurs does it take to make a litre of oil?” the installation asks you. The two oil ovens consist of interactive touch screens and tangible knobs where the visitor can learn about the origin of oil and gas. The visitor selects an organism to make oil, turns back time 200 million years on the oven’s timer and proceeds to learn how oil was generated. The installation aims to show just how much living creatures and how long time it actually takes to produce oil. The fact that oil was once living organisms also refers back to the fact that oil in a way is originally sunlight that has been stored at the bottom of the sea for millions of years. Silhouettes The Silhouettes are situated on five large screens throughout the exhibition space, where five persons connected to the oil industry each tell their unique stories. For example, stories from the oil crisis and how it affected Norway are told as well as eyewitness accounts from the big accident at the Kielland platform in 1982 and what can be done to combat the environmental challenges of harnessing the oil reserves. The mere presence of a visitor in front of the installation triggers one of these persons to appear and begin telling their story. Price tags Visitors interact with this installation to learn how changes in oil price can affect the cost of consumer products. A meter displays the current world price of a barrel of oil and a visitor can alter the oil price by turning the wheel. Thereafter, a mathematical formula is run to project the expected changes in the price of the consumer goods on display. The new price for each product is immediately displayed on the respective digital price tag. The installation is very tangible and aims to be a physical representation of how oil is interwoven into most parts of our society. Pipe Monocular The visitor can look into five pipes to see a film on the future of the oil industry. Different speculative futures are presented to show what the future might hold for Norway technically, socially and environmentally depending on various scenarios. What if the oil runs out? What would the workforce of Norway do then? What will happen to its economy? What will the environmental consequences be if Norway pumps up and uses all the oil in their deposit. The touch of the visitors hand triggers the video to start.